Archive: women / Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Peace, Justice & Dignity for Palestinians.

Posts Tagged ‘women’

Power of Women Protest Movements

September 10th, 2010 • Awareness, News
Tags: aid, blockade, boat, flotilla, gaza, humanitarian, lebanon, Miriam, peace, protest, ship, siege, women

In a piece on female protest movements, BBC Radio 4′s ‘Point of View’ mentions the all-woman humanitarian aid ship, the Mariam, heading for Gaza:

True equality will only have been achieved when women are punished as harshly as men for their misdemeanours, says Lisa Jardine in her Point of View column.

(Partial Transcript)

A ship carrying humanitarian aid, “manned” entirely by women, is ready to leave Lebanon on the first leg of its journey to Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. Named the Mariam (the Aramaic version of Mary), it has a multi-faith international passenger list, including doctors, lawyers and a group of American nuns.

History is full of unexpected precedents where human behaviour is concerned. Although the Mariam initiative has been dubbed by some a publicity stunt, the historian of 16th and 17th-Century Europe encounters groups of ordinary working women acting in a disorderly manner surprisingly often.

[..]

As for their contemporary counterpart – the women sailing on the Mariam – I have little doubt that their intention is to show the world that their attempt to help the beleaguered residents of Gaza is solely humanitarian.

They presumably anticipate a less hostile response from the crews of the Israeli ships sent to intercept them en route than that meted out to their male counterparts. Perhaps we should consider whether we might only have arrived at real equality when women are no longer accorded their traditional licence occasionally to misbehave with impunity.

Read the full transcript at the BBC website… (including a number of comments from listeners/readers)

Follow the Women

March 17th, 2010 • Action, Events, News
Tags: Action, charity, cycle, follow the women, peace, women

This inspirational charity completed their 5th bike ride last October with nearly 250 women from more than 30 countries travelling through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. They were joined by many more local women along the route. Reading PSC attended a talk given by FTW this week.

The Follow The Women cycle ride is the brainchild of 2001 European Woman of the Year and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Detta Regan. In April 2004 she gathered together 270 women from all over the world, including America, Palestine, Britain and Iraq, to ride bicycles for over 300 kilometres through Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to campaign for peace and an end to violence in the region.

“We were told that we would not be able to do it because women do not ride bicycles in the Middle East. They said that the men would throw stones at us and it was too dangerous. That just made us more determined to do it. To show the women in the region that we were not afraid and that we stood with them. In the end the men were giving us flowers and holding out their babies for us to kiss.”